Raptorpat

if you never had to change a blowout then your grandkid is a god among babbies

happy birthday @Mr_Batou!

I have HD edition, but I've admittedly only played it a couple times. My first game in the series was Age of Mythology and I found it too hard to go backwards and lose a lot of QOL stuff. I play a shit ton of Age of Empires 4 though. Mostly poorly though.

yes

Mike Pence dropped out https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/28/pence-suspends-presidential-campaign-00124097

now you can sing a sea shanty

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @DBZ4ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-N.C.) announced he would forgo re-election and instead run for state attorney general. The freshman lawmaker unveiled his decision after North Carolina’s state legislature signed off on new congressional district lines that would give the GOP an advantage in his current district. (Charlotte Observer) Separately, Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) said he will not seek a 10th term in Congress. (Roll Call) Blake Masters, the GOP’s 2022 Senate nominee in Arizona, said he will run to replace retiring Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) in the state’s Eighth District, where he does not live. Masters’ announcement came after speculation that he could run for Senate again next year, a move that would have pitted him against Republican Kari Lake, who recently launched a bid. (The Washington Post)

screencap? not sure what you see edit: nevermind I see it I was looking in the wrong place

So apparently my new servicer won't let me edit my auto-payments because I'm in an IDR repayment program (even though my pre-COVID servicer let me), and it didn't automatically reallocate that whopping $55.38 minimum monthly payment I saved amongst the other six loans. If I want to pay anything more than the minimum, I have to manually assign a payment each month which is kind of weird? I just assumed it would have been absorbed into the other loan payments, especially given none of the minimums even match the interest accrual per month. Maybe they never anticipated someone would actually pay off an IDR loan to begin with so it's not programmed to readjust?

His whole path to victory was rushing the vote so moderates could rely on him not already having a national profile to need to distance from.

Lol he got fined for his dumb mouth https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/25/trump-judge-gag-order-new-york-00123505

Rep. Johnson (LA) is the new speaker, 220/209

I perfunctorily looked into it, which is to say I went on the website and clicked on the "what will cost me the least money in the long run" button and it kept me in the old IBR program.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/10/24/congress/next-up-mike-johnson-00123404

In personal news, I just dropped $15K from the payments I withheld during the COVID pause in one targeted shot to wipe out the entire principal balance of one of my high interest rate Grad PLUS loans. This sucker accrued like $98 per month in interest on top of all my other student loans. On the bright side, it's one less accrual stream that I have to worry about over the next 15 years. But the downside is that even with knocking this one out, I still owe more on my student loans than on my mortgage. And it won't practically impact my minimum monthly payments, its share is just redistributed amongst the rest and puts a minimum payment slightly closer to breaking even on total interest. Which frankly is the whole problem, and why simply changing the rules prospectively isn't enough. If you didn't make enough money the moment you finish school, yeah you'd be in compliance making those minimal income-based payments, but you're drowning in interest by the time you had the means to actually make meaningful payments. This was literally the first and only time I made a payment that actually applied to this specific principal instead of just its interest. Prior to this special one-off thank-you-covid payment, I probably paid a collective $40K back on student loans but only about $120 of it actually touched a principal balance (of the smallest and lowest-interest subsidized loan).

Think like an Emmer type winning 115 moderate GOP and another 100+ moderate Dems.

I don't see Republicans voting for a Dem Speaker, the Dems would have to settle for a compromise Republican who will accommodate some of their asks.

MEADOWS GRANTED IMMUNITY https://abcnews.go.com/US/chief-staff-mark-meadows-granted-immunity-tells-special/story?id=104231281

Isn't that the whole point of RICO though? Carrot-and-stick the little guys to get the big guys.

The party is too factional to compensate for four seats of wiggle room. Could just yo-yo between institutional moderates and hard right for all eternity.

he was afraid to unwind!

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4272284-tom-emmer-wins-speaker-nomination-gop-third-try/

I don't want to get too excited but we seem to be snowballing.